Healing

One has to be wounded in order to become a healer. 

(The) natives in the circumpolar regions, for instance, say that the difference between an ordinary person who suffers and the healer is that the healer finds a way to overcome and get out of his trouble without technical help.  He can overcome his own suffering; he finds the creative way out, and that means he finds his own cure, which is unique.  TPoPA 112

The healing hero, therefore, is the one who finds some creative way out, a way not already known, and does not follow a pattern.  Ordinary sick people follow ordinary patterns, but the shaman cannot be cured by the usual methods of healing.  He has to find the unique way – the only way that applies to him.  The creative personality who can do that then becomes a healer and is recognized as such by his colleagues.  TPoPA 113